Generally, urine and feces disposal devices are designed to be mainly used for incontinent patients, particularly, patients who have to lie down. These urine and feces disposal devices are attached around the anus or genitals of a patient so as to directly collect and receive urine, feces and other excreta. Such disposal devices that are currently mainly used include a relatively long and narrow tube with an opening formed in an end of the tube, and a skin adhesion unit which may be an adhesive and is provided on the end of the tube.
Such disposal devices are easily twisted around the femoral region of the patient because the devices typically have a kidney shape and a relatively large size. In addition, the devices themselves may be bent or twisted. The bending or twisting of the devices naturally reduces the capacity of the devices and may induce the devices to be undesirably separated from the patient while being used, thus causing inconvenience for both the patient and caregivers.
In an effort to overcome the above problems, various techniques in which a pocket for colleting feces is formed in a disposable diaper were introduced. Particularly, a plurality of feces collectors were proposed in patent published applications, filed by “THE PROCTER & GAMBLE COMPANY.”
The feces collectors introduced by “THE PROCTER & GAMBLE COMPANY” are configured to be typically used along with a diaper. A representative example of these feces collectors was proposed in Korean Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2001-53191, entitled “FECES COLLECTOR WITH IMPROVED ADHESIVE FLANGE ATTACHMENT MEANS.” As shown in FIG. 1, this feces collector is a disposable feces disposal device A with a collection bag 1. Having an inner surface 1a, an outer surface 1b and a peripheral rim 1c, the collection bag 1 includes an opening 2 and a flange 3 which surrounds the opening 2. The flange 3 has a wearer skin contact surface 4 and a cloth contact surface 5. An adhesive 6 is applied to the wearer skin contact surface 4 so that the wearer skin contact surface 4 can be adhered to the perianal region of a wearer. The adhesive 6 is a substantial water-insoluble pressure-sensitive adhesive made of three-dimensional matrix polymer. The adhesive 6 contains hydrocolloid in an amount of less than 10%. The wearer skin contact surface 4 of the flange 3 includes at least one non-adhesive portion 7, and protrusions 8 and 8′ which are designed to be inserted into the perineal or tailbone region of the wearer. The collection bag 1 is sealed on an outer edge thereof, and a wearer skin contact surface 4′ and a cloth contact surface 5′ are formed on the perimeter of the bag 1. As shown in FIG. 2, this conventional feces collector is used along with a disposable diaper B.
However, the feces collector with an improved adhesive flange attachment means of Patent Unexamined Publication No. 2001-53191 has only a function of collecting feces of the wearer and thus is disadvantageous in that a caregiver cannot easily check whether the wearer has defecated or not.
Therefore, the caregiver may not be able to rapidly dispose of the feces collector that has collected feces. In this case, the wearer may inadvertently end up wearing the feces collector for a long time with the feces collected in the feces collector. The feces in the feces collector may apply pressure to the collector so that the collector may be undesirably separated from the wearer, thus inconveniencing both the patient and a caregiver.
To solve the above problems of the conventional feces collector, a collector for human feces was proposed in Korean Patent Application No. 10-2009-0124826, filed by the applicant of the present invention.
As shown in FIG. 3, the collector for human feces according to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2009-0124826 includes a fixing plate 10 which is provided around the anus of a patient and has an opening in a central portion thereof; a feces collection bag 20 which is fixed at an end thereof to a surface of the fixing plate 10 so as to receive feces of the patient; and an adhesive means 30 which is formed on one side or both sides of the fixing plate 10. A plurality of vent holes 10a are formed in the fixing plate 10. Notches 10b are formed in a peripheral edge of the fixing plate 10 so that the fixing plate 10 can be reliably adhered to the concave perianal skin between the buttocks of the patient.
To use the collector for human feces having the above-mentioned construction according to Korean Patent Application No. 10-2009-0124826, given the structural characteristics of the human body in which the anus is linearly formed in the concave portion between the buttocks, as shown in FIG. 4, the collector is folded half such that the adhesive means 30 is oriented outwards. Thereafter, the collector is inserted into space between the buttocks P and P′ of the patient, and the adhesive means 30 is adhered to the perianal skin of the patient.
However, this conventional collector for human feces is problematic in that when it is ordinarily worn around the anus of the patient, the feces collection bag 20 protrudes towards the anus through the central opening of the fixing plate 10 and makes contact with the anus of the patient, thus causing discomfort while the patient defecates.
In detail, anatomically, the anus, which forms an opening on the end of the rectum, includes the inner anal sphincter and outer anal sphincter which are covered with mucous membranes. The anal sphincters are very sensitive to touch. Therefore, when the feces collection bag 20 makes contact with the anus, the anal sphincters immediately contract, thus making it difficult for the patient to defecate.